Biased reporting?

Sabarmati Report
Director: Dheeraj Sarna

https://uae.voxcinemas.com/movies/

the-sabarmati-report-hindi

Numerous events occur constantly in India. With such a vast population, all possessing clear minds and no hesitation in expressing their views, skirmishes are inevitable. The issue is that resolutions or conclusions to these conflicts are rarely found. Legal processes for achieving closure and incarcerating the perpetrators are agonisingly slow. When justice is attained, the public loses interest and shifts focus to more pressing matters. The tragic fire that claimed the lives of 59 individuals in two coaches of the Sabarmati Express, which was travelling from Ayodhya to Ahmedabad on 27 February 2002, serves as an example. The train, carrying numerous volunteers and devotees, was returning from Ayodhya. During a scheduled stop at Godhra, Gujarat, chaos erupted, and before long, the passengers found themselves trapped in a burning train.

Shortly after the incident, the State of Gujarat set up a heavily criticised one-man Commission led by retired judge K.G. Shah to investigate the matter and establish whether it was accidental or criminal. Substantial criticism arose regarding the choice of investigator, Shah, who was known to have close ties with then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. A second investigator, Nanavati, another retired judge, was later added to the Commission.

 

In 2003, the Concerned Citizens Tribunal concluded that the incident was an accident, ruling out foul play. In 2008, the Nanavati-Shah Commission released its preliminary report, which unequivocally asserted that the Godhra incident was orchestrated by local Muslims, identifying an Islamic strongman as its mastermind. The report faced significant condemnation, primarily because of its timing, which coincided with the upcoming State Elections. Shah passed away months before the report's release, and another retired judge, Mehta, took over his role. 

Six years later, in 2014, the Nanavati-Mehta Commission issued their findings. It classified the Godhra Station incident as a planned conspiracy. Local Muslim leaders, knowing that the train would be carrying Hindu devotees from Ayodhya, methodically staged a frenzied mob, locked in passengers of a single train coach, poured petrol and lit them, and killed all its passengers, including women and children.

Throughout, the police and courts operated independently of any reports. They determined that a conspiracy had indeed occurred and sentenced 31 individuals to life imprisonment. Nevertheless, the alleged mastermind was acquitted.

The film aims to retell the story from the perspective of a young cameraman, Samar Kumar, who works for a reputable television station. His first assignment centres on the Godhra incident, leading him to disillusionment with the entire system. What he captures on camera sharply contrasts with what is reported to the world. The executives at a higher level control the narrative. 

Samar departs from the media—whether by choice or necessity—and spirals into self-destruction through alcohol. His life receives a renewed chance when another young journalist uncovers his footage and reopens the case.

The film seeks to illustrate the divide in Indian media between English-language channels and vernacular options, specifically Hindi in this case. The English-language channels are depicted as submissive to their Congress leaders, who may have their own agendas. 

For a long time, foreign channels have faced accusations of biased reporting on news related to India. Additionally, many local Indian channels are extensions of these parent companies from elsewhere. It is also claimed that several Indian channels are owned by Christian missionary groups based abroad. With numerous allegations of forced conversions by these groups, people are left to ponder where their loyalties lie - with Bharat Mata or with their paymasters in the Southern Baptist Church, the Communist Party, or an unidentified figure?

https://www.caclubindia.com/forum/who-owns-the-media-in-india-122303.asp

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google.com, pub-8936739298367050, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

As you see it!

Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d'une chute, French; 2023)
Director: Justine Triet

We reassure ourselves by telling lies. We are so cock sure that truth will win. It would somehow emerge from the crack to balance the equilibrium of the Universe. One of the half-truths we convince ourselves is that there is a balance of two opposing but sometimes complementary forces; the good and bad, the truth and the lie, the masculine and feminine forces, chaos and order and so forth. The 'truth' wins every time, we con ourselves.

It is all a perspective of the now and the glaring presence of the evidence of the present. No caped sorcerer will ride the high horse of justice to right the wrong. 

That, in my opinion, is the essence of this story. A husband is found dead in his frosted front yard, presumably after a fall from his balcony three storeys up. He was discovered by his blind son, returning from a walk with his guide dog. The wife was alone in the house with blaring music playing on the speaker. Their relationship had seen better times.

The physical fall brings out the metaphorical fall out of love, the fall of status for the husband, and the possible fall into depression of the husband. 

Initial police investigations suggest it could be a suicide, but a recording of the couple's conversation throws a spanner into the works. The wife, an established author, is arrested as the possible suspect of the murderer of her husband. 

The court trials tease out the family dynamics. What starts as the couple falling in love, having a child, and juggling their careers turns murky. In an accident possibly caused by the husband's lackadaisical delay, the son is caught in an accident that causes him to lose his eyesight. The guilt-stricken writer-husband, compounded by the mother's veiled accusations, becomes a wreck. His writing juices dry up, and love falls off the cliff.

The wife is questioned as a possible perpetrator of the crime or maybe accidental death on a possible domestic tussle. Her previous blemishes are exposed. The animosity that arose as she prospered as a prolific writer at the expense of her husband's creative impotence is laid bare. 

The son takes the heaviest brunt of it all. His testimony at the stand may determine how the case turns out for the mother. He is unsure how to look at all of the events. Did his father kill himself? Did his mother kill his husband? These conundrums seem to put a lot of burden on the shoulders of a young early teenager. Everything is confusing. He is pressured to do the right thing, but what is right anymore? 

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A test of faith?

There Mohammad was all up cheery in the morning. One more week, and he will be off back to his hometown. His sister was to get married, and he needed to earn extra cash to spend with his childhood friends back home.

Off he went answering the requests as the e-hailing app requested. The Klang Valley sun was getting hotter as the day went on. By 2 p.m., he thought he had enough. He would do one last delivery and call it a day. For his latest job, he had to ride to Shah Alam to deliver some foodstuff.

“Waze sends me through Elmina to reach, okay!” He told himself. “After that, I can call a day! After all, it’s his childhood friend Amin’s birthday.”

He was just reminiscing all his times from kindie to adulthood. After losing Amin to the many gruelling challenges in life, they rekindled their friendship through a mutual friend. They just did not have enough of each other. Stories of so many years cannot be completed in a single session. Tonight they plan to continue where they had stopped.

“What is that?” He asked himself as he spotted a white shadow on his rear mirror. He was just about to turn around to see for himself what the heck the white object in the sky was.

Boom!!! Before he could even open his mouth in awe, the white object came directly at him and hit him right smack. Wham!!! Even before he realised what hit him, he was dead.

That is how life is. This is a recreation of a freak accident where a Grab rider was hit by a private plane that went off course and crashed on a highway in Elmina, Shah Alam. Life is so unpredictable. Which motorcyclist. in his wildest dream, would be on the lookout to avoid a stray plane when he is riding on a Malaysia highway. It is a question of wrong place, wrong place.

JAL715 McDonnell Douglas DC8 aircraft
34/69 passengers and 8/10 crew died.
Tokyo - Singapore (via KUL)

Here is Mohammad doing all the right things, leading an honest life, then this. If there is a just divine force supervising all lives on Earth, it is undoubtedly doing a lousy job at it. The seemingly evil beings get scot-free, only to continue doing what they do best with impunity. People have the most diabolical answers for this. God loves the pure so much that He wants to keep him close, and living life on Earth is full of aches and pains. So death is a much-wanted relief from it all. Really?

Purists will say God works in mysterious ways our nimble minds would not comprehend. They tell us to look at the bigger picture of His greatness, whatever that may mean. Then, a group will quickly hurl insults of lack of piety after scrutinising his past, as if he is qualified to cast the first stone. This is as ridiculous as blaming natural calamities on human behaviour, e.g., decadence and earthquakes.

Yet another group will end all questions by invoking the law of karma. As if something intangible like sins of past lives can be argued, it essentially douses the amber of the need to find an answer.

But the flame of curiosity does not extinguish so quickly. In yet another revelation, somebody discovered a similar plane crash in the same vicinity some 46 years previously. Netizens will be engrossed in correlating these two events from all loose ends until another breaking news breaks ground. Then they will lose interest.

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Another Kennedy curse?

Dark Legacy II: The Assassination of JFK Jr.(2014)

This is a followup documentary film to the one released in 2009 which incredulously implicated George HW Bush in the 1963 assassination of JFK in the streets of Dallas. 

It looks like the Bush-Kennedy animosity seems to continue into the next generation. George W Bush is said to be cited in the death of JFK's son. John F Kennedy Jr.

I remember reading about his plane crash on 16th July 1999. The cause of his mishap was told to be spatial disorientation as he was flying at night and lost his bearings when he made a sharp turn near the coast on a dark night with no stars. At that time, I thought it was just a case of a rich kid crashing his new toy. 

Now, this documentary shows many loopholes in the reporting, investigation, the search and rescue missions and even official statements from the authorities.

JFK Jr was a licenced and experienced pilot who is said to be meticulous in the handling of his flight paths. He had just recovered from an ankle sprain but was fit enough to fly. He was flying with his wife and his sister-in-law. There is controversy on whether a flying instructor was accompanying them. There are conflicting statements on this.

They started the journey a little late at about 7.30pm as they could have been waiting for his sister-in-law who arrived late. A skilful aviator as he was, travelling in a spanking new plane, he maintained regular contact with the traffic control tower. Just after his last contact at 9.39pm, his plane just plunged down almost vertically into the waters.

No rescue attempts were initiated and his uncle, Ted Kennedy, had to contact the FAA and the US Coast Guard on his disappearance. Being a public figure, the media was also interested. Even late past midnight, the authorities were clueless where to look for the plane. The information about the locator beam was also unknown. Search mission only commenced after 6am.

The wreckage was only found in the afternoon. The black box was found to have its battery missing, and the fuel valve turned off. One of the plane seats was missing allegedly with the said flight instructor.

To the makers of this documentary, all of the above screamed of a planned assassination. The battery of the black does not go missing just like that. It is not easy for the person manning the flight to accidentally turn the fuel selector valve. There are safety features against this. In the Egypt Air flight #990, a few months later, its pilot deliberately turned off the valve in an apparent suicide manoeuvre. 

The makers suggest that the flight instructor could be a Manchurian Candidate implanted by the same Military Industrial Complex as warned by President Eisenhower in the early '60s. This group of people are the wealthy moguls of the world who prosper from a world which is in an anarchic state. This Cabal is the same one which profited from World War Two and masterminded JFK's assassination in 1963 because he wanted to pull out from Vietnam.

JFK Jr had political ambitions. And so had George W Bush. At that time John McCain seemed like the likely candidate to make to the White House. Thus, the Cabal got George W to supervise the planned murder. Bush's whereabouts for three days surrounding 16th July 1999 is unknown to everyone, including his office in Texas. The documentary suggests that he was on the ground arranging the 'accident', it seems.

There was talk that JFK Jr was going through some turbulent times with his magazine 'George'. A rumour was going around that his marriage could be in the rocks but, on the other hands, others said his wife was pregnant. The press, which initially gave the image of trying to find the truth soon started parroting the authorities and hinted the suicide angle.

1963: A 3-year-old JFK Jr saluting Sr's hearse.

The final verdict (according to the documentary makers) is that the instructor was the Cabal's Manchurian Candidate, who was on a suicide mission, and the delay is discovering the wreckage was necessary to retrieve his body to cover his trail.

After this incident, George W Bush was catapulted to the White House. Then there was 9-11 and their involvement.

In another YouTube presentation, the presenter suggested that probably the elusive Q of QAnon fame is non-other than JFK Jr himself. He postulates that JFK Jr faked his own death to confuse the Military-Industrial Complex. JFK Jr is now working in the background to right the wrong that his father wanted to do. The Cabal was just too powerful to clash head-on.

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Blame, shame, name game

The question is whether an occurrence can solely be put on one event is questionable. It appears that our national pastime is playing the blame game and to shame the alleged perpetrator(s) in the hope that if someone can be pinpointed to have caused the gaffe, we can put closure to a catastrophe. And they hope to prevent the shortcomings in future.

It all sounds noble but unfortunately life is not so simple.

Not every bad incident has a simple etiology. Most often than not it is multi factorial. Like in Murphy's Law, when something is doomed to go wrong, it will go wrong. Airline industry have considered a 'no blame' policy but to identify the precipitating events and to take a collective approach to improve safety.
On the other hand, is a leader culpable to take the brickbats if his subordinates faltered? Should he be made to answer or just take the easy way of saying, "it wasn't me. It is not easy to control so many people's actions, you know!"?

That reminds me of a small civil court case where a minor road accident had occurred. A driver coming from the opposite side had hit him at a traffic light. The aggrieved driver insisted that he was right as the traffic light on his side was green. The learned judge decreed that he also had to take 20% of the blame as it was his duty too to ensure that his lane was clear before he started moving!